Taynor

Duchy of Scarlen

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{Roleplaying Group Entry}
The party is a group of intrepid adventurers, worldy and perhaps wise (perhaps, not), who have grown bored. Petty squabbles of noblemen and insignificant aristocratic quarrels no longer interest them, and in the interest of interest, they decided to take up adventuring once more, and put down the trawls of politicking for once and for all.
They traveled to the land of Taynor, a new duchy in the kingdom of Drisden, and decided to take thier chances and test themselves in the streches of wild land and untamed possibility that was inherent to the newly formed duchy.
And they found themselves in a town.
A town called Storm.
This is where we begin.

So, the party has been wiped.
Clean slate, I suppose.
The Yekatohu is still extant, with a host of bodies to control (look under Abandoned Church at Starnhelm ), and the frost folk now have an age old enemy to contend with – if he decides to stay in the north.
Panacea’s fate is, however, still unknown. The devil, in a particularly lucid state of evil, decided to leave her alive yet turn all of her friends into zombies – a sort of guilt trip on steroids.
Everyone be sure to tell me your new characters, by the way!

(normal group entry)
So, last sunday we had many a thing happen. The Party once again fell out of The Crossroads, landing befuddled on the dusty ground. They set off for Sparrowsdale, only to find themselves attacked along the road by a pair of hippogriffs. Killing one and knocking unconscious the other in the resulting scuffle, they disposed of the first body and nursed the other back to health, earning its trust despite the battle. It went on to become a faithful companion and mount, but not before its nest was discovered, replete with an egg, which, sadly, was diseased. Never fear, though, for the Party, whether out of greed for the money that a young hippogriff would garner or out of mercy for the poor soul, paid for it to be healed by a priest of the Pelorian Order. They then set off for Storm to deliver a letter to one Parthen Kitilistalianaktik, and, on reaching their destination found quite the scene. All the residents of the town were enraptured with the very recipient of their letter, and he himself was quite the odd, if charismatic, figure. Always smiling slightly, he walks with a barely noticeable limp, leaning on a staff with a cross at the top of it. He habitually wears elegant well-cut clothing which miraculously remains clean. Long, blond hair tops his head, and smiling green eyes peer out cheerfully at a befuddled world. Parthen preaches, and has found himself a following in the town of Storm, denouncing the common religions of the area in favor of the Deis Majoris. How did the party deal with this? They trained Hippogriffs for six weeks, spending a blissful idyll from the harsh adventuring life outside of the town’s gates. Whilst they, occupied in seclusion, took their time, events went on in Storm…

This last meeting was, to say the least, interesting. We had a pair of party members sign up for the Adventurers of the West, rank 1. Next, they decided to have an interim adventure while waiting for the guild to find a quest for them. Heading off into the nearby woodlands, they found a tribe of orcs, 28 strong, with a pair of ogres thrown in as well. The party then spent the next hour (out of game) and 12 hours (in game) planning out what they were to do about this threat – pits, bombs, assassination… any and every plan was heard, and more than a few were shouted down by the party cleric. They finally decided on an attack plan which consisted of flying over the orcish brutes and dropping an explosion down on them under the cover of night and… well, and not following up. While the necromancer and the archer rode off to bomb the evil foes, the cleric, druid, and monk all stayed behind and fought with another “evil foe” – the undead minion of the necromancer. Defeating it through cautious tactics and the help of a druid who’s cave they had been using (or planning to use) as a fallback point against the orcs, they then proceeded to bicker and politick for the rest of the session when the necromancer returned. The archer, thoroughly fed up with this whole “fighting each other and not the enemy” schtick, chucked a few rocks and left, in grand kindergarten style. The necromancer tried valiantly to hold himself against the illogic of a cleric who refused to do any fact-checking on his zealous hunt for evil, again, in grand kindergarten style. The monk had no idea what to do, alternatively threatening and backing down, and the druid stood there with a bemused expression and a quarterstaff, doing nothing. All in all, I think we can safely say that we should paint that cave white.

This last Sunday was one of some note. It started innocently – with a summons from the AotW ( Adventurers of the West for a quest… one which, due to a series of comedic and tragic events, was never answered (much to the chagrin of a certain little sparrow). On the way to Storm, the nearest base of operations for the AotW, the party ran into a problem. A problem with fur, fangs, and ferocity. Three wolves, one of them of the were variety, assaulted the camp at night, and were fought off – a fight in which one party member (who shall not be disclosed: it is a sensitive matter) was infected with a disease most foul. [End Act One] They hastened to storm, for the full moon was near. Thankfully, Storm, and help, was nearer. They sought the help of a mysterious and powerful man by the name of Parthen, who offered the help at the price of a bushel of Gulgaris fungi – a rare, purple, and phosphorescent plant which grows only in the caverns of mount Ragnor, and only very rarely, even there. [End Act Two] The players took this bargain (the alternative being a furry “friend”) and undertook the quest to the mountain. After a few bouts with such common things as invisible mushrooms and dancing wardrobes, the players reached the cavern systems, deliberated, and charged down them. They then fell into a big hole. A really, very, quite extremely large hole. Falling down, down, and down, they all fully expected death – a death which did not come, thanks to one Malor: a deep voiced, unaccented spirit, trapped in the depths of the mountain by some cruel twist of fate. He agreed that, if the players would free him, he could lift them out of the hole, and, perhaps, even help them obtain some mushrooms for Parthen. The players proceeded to retrieve the gems which housed Malor’s power, and we ended with them in the process of doing so. [End Act Three]

UPDATE: And then the next meeting they explored Malor’s Caverns and killed some undead, got attacked by a magic hand they stole weapons from, found some gems, and some party members got poisoned by goo bubbles and are sitting around trying to not fall into the incapacitating despair of having zero charisma. The cleric of Pelor is hanging around the Malor’s Shrine because she can’t risk crossing the poison or climbing a rope some hundreds of feet up to leave. She has agreed to heal anyone that comes to her but can not stay with the party. (So if I, Claire, am not at the next meeting feel free to assume my character is there and offering healing services at the cost of crossing the poison.) [End Act Four]

Panacea, Dean Judd, Sylvester, and Marius started in an unknown town in a local inn. Dean led the Group off in the direction of the poor district to find something to do, but they were stopped by a city guards. The guards said the party was in violation of law D-793.56 section z or something stupid like that. This states that all weapons needed to be registered with the city. The Group agreed to be escorted to the nearest Registry of Pointed and Deadly Things. Here they use magic to tell when someone kills a human inside the city. After being registered the group encountered a- strange- mage who we call Cheese Head… He was going to the R.P.D.T. and he was quite desperate to join the group. Other then Marius who wanted his spell book, The Group was not interested. After learning he was a sorcerer everyone agreed to wait for him outside then ran off to the nearby warmage’s guild in an attempt to ditch Cheesy. Not moments later did Cheese Head show up in the same guild hall. Everyone but Sylvester started to leave when we encountered a man whose size was only matched by his lack of hygiene. He was friendly and wanted to shake everyone’s hand (after wiping his nose and a need to fart) then he saw Marius. He must have had a fetish for gray elves because the second he noticed him he jumped on him and started shoving Marius into a bag. After standing there for a moment the group started to act and to everyone’s surprise, Cheese Head used the spell scorching ray but missed. After Cheese Head used a burning hands spell and turned everyone a light golden brown, is when everything went wrong. Sylvester went to fetch the guards, Marius slipped free, and Cheese Head pulled a knife and repeatedly stabbed the fat man fiftey times. Dean flanked Cheese Head with Panacea, setting off the alarm for the guards. A few moments of indecision later, Marius put a smoking hole in Cheese Head ending his bipolar existence and making Marius a wanted man. Dean is arrested and the only one with him is Sylvester who wants nothing other than Dean’s death. Then the day ended with Marius, Panacea, and Marrow fighting the guards for Dean’s freedom while Sylvester is trying to end the young Templian’s life

Today we had quite a few happenings down in the caves of Malor – we had exposition, we had plot, we had mindless bashing, we had strategy, we had trap and, of course, we had lava. Lots and lots of lava. Or magma rather, pardon me.
This lava was under floors, at the ends of hallways and just generally in places it shouldn’t be.
But, lets start at the beginning.
The beginning began somewhat inauspiciously, for an adventure to be full of molten death. It began with a skeleton (marrow) and a robot (Jackbrass) rolling in muck. I say that in all seriousness. Muck. Poisonous gooey glop. They were doing so to release all of the pockets of poison inside of it, thus rendering them… safe?
It worked, somehow. The party members trapped on the other side of the roomful of muck made it across, only getting their feet a little dirty rather than their everything a little dead.
We then progressed to the exciting naptime! all of the players, exhausted and wounded, decided that it was time to valiantly rest where no man, woman, or robot had rested before. This, like everything else ever, resulted in party in-fighting, squabbling over who gets the bed in the corner. By bed I of course mean pile of stone.
Moving on, we get to the exposition.
Marius used his voodoo “knowledge” and “learning” to “analyze” things. Yeah, I don’t know what that means either. Just go with it. He “learned” that the Myrtorian roots of the word Malor can be translated as one of two things – either “Dead one” or “Dead to the World” both of which are not very cheery. He also learned of a man named Balthius, apparently one of the first to espouse the obscure religion of Deis Majorianism, the calling of, nowadays, Parthen Kitilistalianaktik.
The party, after revealing this interesting bit of information, decided to continue on through the caverns, in search of more gemstones: now they were on the lookout for blue rubies. They have, thus far, discovered a room with a nasty trap which makes the floor explode (to reveal, of course, lava) a room filled with treacherous animated statues and a blue ruby, and a room filled with treasure and a blue ruby (which of course was guarded by a lava trap.) They have now stumbled clumsily into what appears to be a hive of giant bees, each the size of a large dog.
Think lassie. Then shorten the fur and change it to black and yellow. Then give her wings. Then give her two more legs and make them insectoid. Then give her bee-eyes. And then make the rest of her into a bee. And then you have something not at all like lassie.
Why did I make you turn lassie into a bee?
Because I can.
And, on that note, I bid you good night.
-Vermill

As I gear up for another chilling, exciting, and possibly quite destructive meeting of the LSRHS D&D club, I realize: I forgot to update the adventure log! (Thanks to the cloaked creepy guy with the skeleton for the reminder.)
So, I give you “It Went Swimmingly”.

Exposition and adventure! Onwards and upwards friends. Finally, the party has escaped the clutches of mount Ragnor and the dangers of Malor’s Prison – only to find that while they are a good deal richer in gold, in knowledge they remain poor. Malor’s motives for escape seem murky, and his reason for imprisonment murkier still. The figure of Parthen becomes ever more enshrouded in mystery and shadow, and group shifts have not made solving this mystery any easier. The party, with so little information, has decided to shift focus, and find another adventure to occupy themselves with – Beware though, should Marius and his followers, for the past has a way of catching up to those who ignore it. Icy spirits and long-named half elves do so enjoy causing trouble.
But, to the facts of the last meeting, the minutes of court, if you will. Battling through multiple more rooms of a deadly dungeon, Marius’ party was aided towards the end of the deadly halls by a spectral wolf, the incarnation of Malor’s will, dormant now thousands of years. Instead of taking advantage of this unique and wholly remarkable avenue into the shadowy history of the Duchy of Taynor, they instead complained that it lacked adequate fighting prowess. Typical, eh?
They fought through the last few rooms without too much in the way of unexpected events, until they discovered and obtained the last of the gems – instantly flooding the caverns with gallons upon gallons of lava. In shock, the party realized that the lava was not affecting them, and they heard only Malor’s voice telling them to “swim”. They swam up and out through the molten rock, ending up clean and dry on the ground next to the party fighter’s horse. While the party was still re-orienting itself, Malor said his hasty goodbyes and dissapeared.
The party, in a slight state of confusion, is now on the road back to Storm. (With the exception of Panacea who decided to leave the party and perhaps the adventuring lifestyle all together in favor of assisting the Pelorian temple in Sparrowsdale. Dean Judd also left the group and the party has gained two new members in their place, one is a Wood Elf and the other is a half-dwarf half-badger creature known as a Wildren who originates from another plane.)

Last sunday was, to put it minimally, confusing. Confusing as hell. However, here is it in chronological order and as clearly as possible – for your reading pleasure and so that your head doesn’t explode from plot twist overload.
The party escaped the prison of an age old spirit – Malor. Deposited roughly on the road back to Storm, they decided to head that way – what with not having many other options. On the road back they encountered a quartet of centaurs, all four of which were friendly. They were just finishing a short parley with these four when a swooping shadow and a high pitched shriek warned them of danger on swift wings – a small black dragon.
The dragon however, was not the true foe to be feared here – that title lies with the Yekatohu, a spirit of ice and death which some of the party members had fought earlier. As the dragon provided an ample distraction, the Yekatohu tried to possess one of the newer members of the party. Failing that, it took control of one of the centaurs, and had an impromptu “meet n’ greet” with aforementioned party member.
After vanquishing the dragon, the party decided (after much deliberation) to continue onwards towards Storm. Their journey, however, was disrupted when the party wizard, Marius, warned of a demonic mist which was trailing them. After a bit of an interim in which the Yekatohu, through the use of a centaurian child, possessed Constance, the party continued onwards, in a state of severe confusion as to what to do about the odd spirit tailing them.
That night, the Yekatohu further meddled with the group by conjuring the illusion that Mask was getting his questionably theiving fingers on another party member’s hard earned loot. This caused some minor disputing within the party, but not anything too serious.
The next morning, however, things began to really heat up.
Aldeth, the party archer and rider of Snickers the Hippogriff, took off to the rising sun, a pack heavy with mushrooms on his back, and the best of intentions in his heart. But gold, clinking, shining, insidious gold, corrupts even the best of us – and Aldeth perhaps wasn’t the best of us.
It turned out that the mushrooms were worth a whopping 5,000 gold pieces each – a price Aldeth couldn’t afford to share. The day after receiving payment from Parthen, he hopped onto his eagle-beaked steed and rode south. Where bound, none but he could tell you – and perhaps Marius, the elf whose distrust runs thicker and faster than any river.
A few days after he hightailed it out of Storm, the rest of the party arrived. After some rather ingenious detective work (consisting of “He isn’t here. He must be somewhere else.”) The party determined that Aldeth was gone, and so, mysteriously, was their gold. Understandably angry at this slight, the party resolved to follow with murder in their hearts – until a certain icy someone intervened. Mask and a few others had managed to deduce that Constance was possessed – and then Mask decided it would be a good idea to insult the temperamental and Chaotic Evil spirit. This resulted in Mask being shot by a blast of icy cold, and then Marrow tackling Constance, the possessed badger-woman. Mask ran to get help, and on returning, saw that Constance was paralyzed. The party then went immediately to the one man powerful enough to incapacitate the spirit for a good duration of time – Parthen Kitilistalianaktik. Parthen complied, paralyzing Constance, and then the party went to one of the few people alive who had dealt with the creature and lived – Panacea the cleric of Pelor. She was living in Sparrowsdale, doing research for the Pelorian order there.
The party traveled to the Pelorian temple in Sparrowsdale, and immediately sought out Panacea – she advised them to do as Marius had suggested – get a way to speak with dead and find the Frost Folk graveyard, to speak with those long dead who had before successfully defeated the Yekatohu. During this conversation, the high priestess came into the room – and on request, cordially pointed out both Marius and Mask as being candidates for possession: And did not point out Constance.
Still confused?
“I am the eggman, I am the eggman, I am the Yekatohu!”

There was a lot of arguing about whether to go south to recover the money Aldeth stole or go north to a graveyard where the party might be able to speak to a ghost about defeating the Yekatohu. The Yekatohu was possessing Marius and he convinced the party to go south, because, according to him, money would be needed to defeat the Yekatohu. On the way south Shadid was attacked by illusions and was badly hurt by this dark magic. That morning the Yekatohu possessed Jackbrass because Marius wrests control back from the demon. Jackbrass was quickly taken down (but not killed) after he started fireing magic missiles at Shadid. Apparently the Yekatohu did not like Shadid. Marius promptly told the party that they were all stupid for listening to the Yekatohu, and some of the party members confessed that they really just wanted money. Marius had the idea of blindfolding Jackbrass thinking it might stop the Yekatohu from possessing anyone with its ranged ability. A mercenary showed up at the camp and was very interested in Jackbrass because he thought he was a Myrtorian relic. The entire party freaked out and told the mercenary not to touch Jackbrass or he would be possessed. The mercenary told the party that he was also heading north and asked to tag along. After a long session of questioning the party agreed to let the mercenary travel with them, if only to ensure that he would not touch Jackbrass. The mercenary pulled a door off his cloak and the party used it as a sled to drag the Warforge. Marius told the party that they should in-fact be heading north and that money was not actually needed to defeat the Yekatohu. A day or so later Marius cut Jackbrass free claiming he was not possessed after all.

The party was all set to head north when Constance, the badger person, yelled that before they went anywhere they needed to buy healing potions. The party went to Sparrowsdale, which was to the north anyway, and waited outside the town while Marius went shopping. After that they all continued north until Marius remembered that it’s cold in the north and everybody would need winter gear. The party made a short detour to a small town and Marius once again went in by himself to buy things, among them were crafting materials the mercenary requested to make a garrote. Marius returned and shortly after the party made camp. Three days later during the first watch the mercenary nearly killed Mr. Flint by putting a locking garrote around his neck and dumping him in a ditch. Next the Yekatohu possessed mercenary shot frost at Jackbrass a few times then called forth a magic fog that blinded most of the group. Marius using the magic seeing stone spotted the mercenary and held him while Marrow chopped his head off. Marius then claimed the Yekatohu would be trapped for 24ish hours.

And that was the end of the meeting, could someone please edit this as I don’t think it is entirely accurate.
-facts edited by Conor/Aleks